In an odd unexpected twist, Ubisoft seems to be feeling up the MMOs with two potential highly interesting titles that were announced during their press conference. The games The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot looks a lot like a free-to-play web or flash-based MMO mixed with a Dungeon Keepers motif; and The Division looks like a highly-tactical persistent world third person shooter MMO combined with post apocalyptic survival gameplay (and of course all the hypertechnology to support tactical gameplay.)
Without further adieu, here’s what I saw today.
The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot
The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot debut via Ubisoft at this year’s pre-E3 2013 press conferences and what do we have here? It’s an MMO, it’s free-to-play, and it’s from a notable triple-A publisher…and it’s also available on PC and in closed beta right now.
Welcome to Opulencia —it’s all about gathering up your own loot and taking it from those less fortunate (or defended) than you. This MMO from Ubisoft has just hit their closed beta so it’s about time for you to jump in and check it out.
The game presses players to build a mighty castle on top of a floating rock (amidst numerous other floating rocks) and fill it with horribly and ugly monsters to protect the player’s treasure horde from other players. Oh, those other floating rocks? They’re also the build-points for other castles, also filled with loot, and populated by players interested in grabbing your loot.
If you’ve ever played a game like Dungeon Keeper you probably have an idea of what this game is like. Defenders set up their castles with traps, labyrinths, rooms, and monsters to slow down and stop attacking looters (other players) and, of course, sally forth into the world to invade, smash, and grab the loot within other castles. So it’s literally a virtual arms race between players building up defenses and beating them down.
From the looks of the trailer, the game is filled with mostly single-player one-on-one, but the MMO aspect is how players interact in a somewhat persistent world where their castles hang about in an infinite sky. Not much else
Tom Clancy’s The Division
Massive Entertainment has brought a third-person-shooter to the edge of the apocalypse. At the Ubisoft press conference, several representatives showed off gameplay that displayed a lot of interesting elements that will bring up MMO gaming on consoles.
Tom Clancy’s The Division certainly promises to be massively multiplayer (or some hybrid thereof) by combining open worlds, team-based combat, with a potential for persistent worlds with other people running around in the same place. In the game, players are part of an elite force trained in preparation for the end of the United States (or even the end of the world) a virus has immolated the population in fever, infrastructure has failed, and rioting and lawlessness abounds.
There’s little information on how it works exactly, but there was an amazing demo.
The three teammates moving through New York work together to quell an assault on a police station. With voice chat enabled, they advance on hostiles spilling from the armory. A small battle ensues with teammates hiding behind cars and setting up auto-turrets for area denial (although in the demo, the turret was destroyed rather quickly.)
One teammate—a fourth—is even logged into the game from a tablet PC. His avatar is not one of the humans in the field, but instead a small drone helicopter that is capable of painting targets not immediately visible to those in the game. This means that even people not near their console can become an integral part of the game by providing support for people in the game.
The team dynamics with excellent graphics, combined with a nice looking HUD system makes this game feel very immersive even in the demo form.
“Whoa, another group of flares! Brace for PvP!” Right before the team rushes to cover and slides into place as another team opens fire from across a parking lot.
